Kaija Pakarinen

The Other Side of Hope

A restaurateur befriends a Syrian refugee who has recently arrived in Finland.

The Man Without a Past

Arriving in Helsinki, a nameless man is beaten within an inch of his life by thugs, miraculously recovering only to find that he has completely lost his memory. Back on the streets, he attempts to begin again from zero, befriending a moody dog and becoming besotted with a Salvation Army volunteer.

The Mine

A young and ambitious civil servant Jussi finds himself being in charge of the environmental permit of a huge nickel and uranium mine in Northern Finland. The Talvivaara mine, led by a charismatic globe trotting visioner Pekka Perä is introducing an entirely new method of collecting minerals whilst creating jobs in one of the poorest areas in Scandinavia. Jussi slowly discovers that he has been led astray by several people and that the new method has serious downsides he did not forsee. The mine is causing environmental hazards that are being hushed down. A new application for another permit is brough to his table by the same mine. Along with the application comes an interesting job offer and a chance of a new beginning. Jussi has to decide whether he will play along and if so, with whom.

Drifting Clouds

The ever-poker-faced Ilona loses her job as a restaurant hostess, as her tram driver husband, Lauri, also finds himself out of work. Together they must hit the streets of Helsinki, facing up to hardship and humiliation in their quest for survival, guided through the gloom by a ray of hope.

Lahja

A middle-aged woman wants a child and starts to look for a suitable father when she doesn't succeed in the plan with her husband.

The Wedding Waltz

Viltteri, a balding guy in his thirties living in rural northern Finland, is hopelessly clueless about his new role as a married man and the father of a newborn son. A perfect escape from family responsibilities is having to get his old Hillman Minx repaired and inspected for road-worthiness, with a little help from an eccentric bunch of friends who never seem to have grown up either.

Kiss Me in the Rain

Middle-aged Maire's husband spends most of his time abroad on business. Alone in their large house, Maire fills her empty life by absorbing other people's tragedies from tabloid newspapers. Obsessed by the story about a young single mother whose husband was killed and the killer got away with it, she befriends the young widow who would rather forget the whole event and go on with her life.

Dirty Hands

A political drama set in the fictional country of Illyria between 1943 and 1945, the story is about the assassination of a leading politician. The country, an ally of Nazi Germany, is on the verge of being annexed to the Eastern Bloc. Kaurismäki's TV adaptation of Jean-Paul Sartre's play Les Mains Sales (Dirty Hands) tells the story of Hugo (Matti Pellonpää) who has just been released from prison. Before going to prison, he has worked as a journalist at his party's newspaper. This timid journalist, who uses the pseudonym Raskolnikov, wants to advance in his career and gets his chance when Hoederer (Sulevi Peltola), the leader of the party, has to be eliminated.

The Other Side of Hope

A restaurateur befriends a Syrian refugee who has recently arrived in Finland.

The Man Without a Past

Arriving in Helsinki, a nameless man is beaten within an inch of his life by thugs, miraculously recovering only to find that he has completely lost his memory. Back on the streets, he attempts to begin again from zero, befriending a moody dog and becoming besotted with a Salvation Army volunteer.

The Mine

A young and ambitious civil servant Jussi finds himself being in charge of the environmental permit of a huge nickel and uranium mine in Northern Finland. The Talvivaara mine, led by a charismatic globe trotting visioner Pekka Perä is introducing an entirely new method of collecting minerals whilst creating jobs in one of the poorest areas in Scandinavia. Jussi slowly discovers that he has been led astray by several people and that the new method has serious downsides he did not forsee. The mine is causing environmental hazards that are being hushed down. A new application for another permit is brough to his table by the same mine. Along with the application comes an interesting job offer and a chance of a new beginning. Jussi has to decide whether he will play along and if so, with whom.

Drifting Clouds

The ever-poker-faced Ilona loses her job as a restaurant hostess, as her tram driver husband, Lauri, also finds himself out of work. Together they must hit the streets of Helsinki, facing up to hardship and humiliation in their quest for survival, guided through the gloom by a ray of hope.

Lahja

A middle-aged woman wants a child and starts to look for a suitable father when she doesn't succeed in the plan with her husband.

The Wedding Waltz

Viltteri, a balding guy in his thirties living in rural northern Finland, is hopelessly clueless about his new role as a married man and the father of a newborn son. A perfect escape from family responsibilities is having to get his old Hillman Minx repaired and inspected for road-worthiness, with a little help from an eccentric bunch of friends who never seem to have grown up either.

Kiss Me in the Rain

Middle-aged Maire's husband spends most of his time abroad on business. Alone in their large house, Maire fills her empty life by absorbing other people's tragedies from tabloid newspapers. Obsessed by the story about a young single mother whose husband was killed and the killer got away with it, she befriends the young widow who would rather forget the whole event and go on with her life.

Dirty Hands

A political drama set in the fictional country of Illyria between 1943 and 1945, the story is about the assassination of a leading politician. The country, an ally of Nazi Germany, is on the verge of being annexed to the Eastern Bloc. Kaurismäki's TV adaptation of Jean-Paul Sartre's play Les Mains Sales (Dirty Hands) tells the story of Hugo (Matti Pellonpää) who has just been released from prison. Before going to prison, he has worked as a journalist at his party's newspaper. This timid journalist, who uses the pseudonym Raskolnikov, wants to advance in his career and gets his chance when Hoederer (Sulevi Peltola), the leader of the party, has to be eliminated.

Nuoruustango

Is love eternal? Or ideology? When erstwhile communists meet at a food course the result is quite the concoction.

Lumikit

A hospital room drama in which women talk about love, children, relationships with men, and life in general. Stories of survival are seasoned with both tears and laughter.

Trench Road

After his wife leaves him, a man becomes obsessed getting his family back together by buying an old house.

Lahjat esiin!

11-year-old Kiti does something forbidden: she secretly opens her Christmas present ahead of time. The package has clearly been switched, and Kiti begins to investigate the matter. Before Christmas Eve comes to an end, the culprit is revealed. Who is the thief, and what is the reason for the theft?

Joensuun Elli

The film shows how Midsummer was celebrated in North Karelia in 1973.

Restless

Ari, a paramedic, is a chronic womanizer; he makes it a point of pride to never sleep with the same woman twice, and his nights are a long series of brazen one-night stands. But when Ari meets Tiina, something unexpected happens – he falls in love.

Yötyö

Cupid Aims High

A comedy of an amateur puppet theater, eviction and modern women with their old-fashioned methods.

Lapin kullan kimallus

In 1860s Lapland, gold diggers Jakob Ervast and Nils Lepistö, who previously worked in California, embark on an arduous journey towards the north. The friends find gold at the first excavation site, which Kittilä's crown prince Konrad Planting and Edvard Manninen also start looking for.

Hush

Sakari and Veera get engaged, madly in love. Not long after, Veera asks Sakari to help her in a matter relating to her father, and in a way that completely shocks Sakari. He does everything in his power to stop her from pursuing her plan. But before the story is over, Sakari will be been forced to make choices he thought he'd never have to face.

Devil's Bride

Anna is a 16-year old in a village where women are accused of witchcraft. It's based on the witch hunts on Åland, Finland in the 1600s.

Summer Is Crazy

After the bankruptcy of their fine dining restaurant, the Eerolas are stuck in the seaside village of Nauvo with no clear plan for the future. In the shadow of the father’s depression both the mother and the teenage daughter rebel against the stagnant life, each in their own way. In the magical light of the midnight sun, new loves begin while others come to an end.

Hella W

The life of a heroine. The life and work of Hella Wuolijoki. A poet, spy and millionaire, she turned into an internationally acclaimed businesswoman, politician and playwright, who collaborated with Europe's leading writers such as Bertolt Brecht and Maxim Gorky, but faced the harshness of a changing world as the Finnish, Soviet and British secret services focus on her life, family and work.

Love and Fury

In 1980s Helsinki, a city about to burst with young energy and rebellion, two young writers determined to conquer the world fall madly in love. For Inka, the love affair puts everything in motion: she finds her own voice, publishes her first novel, and becomes a sensation. The intensity of their relationship has a different affect on Juhana, who starts to lose his grip on writing and, finally, life. At the height of the love affair Inka starts to suspect that their mad love might actually be real madness.

Martinin rikos

A story about the conflicting emotions of love and hate, duty and selfishness in the human mind.

Void

Eero’s career as an author is spiraling down: he just can’t get started with his new novel. The ambitious actor Pihla is about to get her international break. Neither of them is willing to sacrifice their career even though their relationship is doing worse than ever. Void is a comedy-drama about the price of success and the agony of failure, and about situations where your partner just doesn’t get it.

Kotikatu

Nurses

Like good soldiers in a war-zone, hospital staff are expected to respect the chain of command when dealing with life and death situations. But what happens when smug doctors, arrogant surgeons, and out-of-touch administrators make that easier said than done? Nurses deals with the professional and personal lives of four female colleagues who cope in different ways with the challenges of life on the trauma ward. With determination, strength, and a dark sense of humor, they achieve the demanding and inspiring task of saving lives in a system that sometimes seems designed to do the opposite.

Deadwind

When Sofia Karppi, a detective in her 30's who is trying to get over her husband's death, discovers the body of a young woman on a construction site, she triggers a chain of events that threatens to destroy her life again.

Uudisraivaaja

The Paradise

Two murders shake the Finnish community of Fuengirola, a group that made this tiny corner of Málaga their own little Finnish paradise on the shores of the Mediterranean. Hilkka Mäntymäki, a veteran crime detective aged 60, is travelling from Helsinki to help the local police on a case that will soon claim new victims. Because escaping the cold and the dark is much easier than leaving your own past behind.

Kimmo

The name of the person is a thirtysomething, work shy and relaxed Kimmo.

Kaverille ei jätetä

Hovimäki

The lives of the aristocratic Lindhof family and their servants from 1798 to 1907.

Downshifters

A successful thirtysomething couple find themselves at a financial dead end; they are faced with an extreme lifestyle change to pay for their debts. The luxury lifestyle ends when they are forced to move into a rented apartment in the suburbs. But to their friends, they hold up a facade and explain it all with downshifting.

Ihmisten puolue

Seconds

A huge train accident in an idyllic small town shocks the whole of Finland, and accident investigator Marita Kaila is faced with the most difficult case of her career. Under increasing pressure, Marita and her team try to find out what led to the death of dozens of people. But there is also a tragedy in Marita's own past, which the demanding investigation brings to the fore. Will he solve the case before the pressure becomes too much?

Sininen enkeli

Sininen enkeli vividly depicts the colorful upswing of the 1980s in Helsinki, where money grows on trees, convertibles guarantee the thrill of speed and the solarium is the new sun. Marko Hyyryläinen, who hides his country background, arrives in the city and wants his share of money and love.

Man in Room 301

Summer 2007, Finland. While the Kurtti are spending their annual holidays in their cabins in the land of a thousand lakes, the family is struck by a tragedy: Tommi, 2 years old, is killed by a gunshot. Elias, a 12-year-old neighbour, is blamed for the death of the child. 12 years later, the family receives a threatening anonymous letter and the secrets start to unravel, and show how far each of them are willing to go for their loved ones.

A Piece of My Heart

A child goes missing in a drama about child welfare workers and the effects of their work on the lives of these workers. Rita returns to her job in child protection after being furloughed during a police investigation. The child is still missing, and Rita is held responsible for the situation. She was replaced as manager by a new director, Jyrki. When she returns to work, Rita is paired with inexperienced Laura. Together, Rita and Laura become an effective team, but the boundaries between their work and private lives begin to blur.

Raja

Reindeer Mafia

Poromafia is a crime saga tinged with black humor, centered on the internal power struggle of a family ruling the northern wilderness. The northern matriarch leaves behind an inheritance, which divides the family's lands among the family. However, the wills tear the family apart as buried secrets come to light.

Kirje isältä

The Age of Iron

Rauta-aika (The Age of Iron) is a dramatic four-part miniseries completed in 1982 by Finnish broadcast network Yle TV2. The production attempts to adapt the national epic of Finland, the Kalevala, for the television audience by way of humanizing the mythological characters whose thoughts and actions drive the narrative. The protagonists of Rauta-aika, Väinö, Ilmari and Lemminki, have been inspired by the tales in the Kalevala and go in search of a woman, eventually finding themselves at war with the Nordic people, and in the end pay dearly for their pursuits.

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